It was the type of afternoon that made you wonder if the Bruins had eaten too many cheesesteaks.

Instead of going out and proving to general manager Peter Chiarelli and all observers that they’re a better team than Jarome Iginla thinks, the Bruins lost to Philadelphia 3-1 in a fashion that made everyone think maybe they need more than just the former Flames forward in order to make a run this season.

Everything was in the Bruins’ favor, as Johnny Boychuk returned from a three-game injury absence, the Flyers were missing three top-six defenseman (Nicklas Grossman, Andrej Meszaro, Braydon Coburn) and the Flyers had lost four in a row. The Bruins fell behind 2-0 for the fourth straight game and extended their first-period goal-less streak to six games. This time, there was no comeback despite a goal by Nathan Horton.

The trade deadline is Wednesday, and Chiarelli might have to add a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman to get this team into the Stanley Cup championship conversation, as I wrote for CBS Boston last night. It could be slim pickings by the time 3 p.m. Wednesday rolls around.

•The Bruins will play in Buffalo tonight and then fly home for Cuts For a Cause Monday.

Gord,Taking a look at the stats you put up, Brian Campbell is second ovrleal in relative plus minus, offense is WAAY more heavily weighted than defense and even then there appears to be some sort of breakdown because McQuaid (who I really, really like) is pretty high up in many categories despite playing limited minutes and mostly in relatively easy situations. Something doesn’t quite fit for me. I also strongly disagree with a heavier weighting of offensive statistics over defensive play, which is what these statistics base ranking off of. You also have to recognize that Weber and Chara are playing on less offensively talented teams, so points are harder to come by for either of them, and I would think that since Weber has to defend against the very talented Detroit offense 6 times a year, he would have to face the toughest offense if we were to assume that the top guns in the west are in fact better than those in the east, which I’m not convinced of, but that is a looong and convoluted argument best left for another time. But for this, I just don’t think Lidstrom was the shutdown defender he has been in the past this season.

“Value the future over the present” -MK. Well said and that is the direction I want them to go. Patience has been mentioned lately and I think the moves needed have been evident for some time. Perception is everything and some players appear disengaged. W